Escape to Gettis… And Love, from Gerri Bowen (Love in Gettis #1)

Hello, there! Welcome to a book review, for a change ;D

Our star today is a book I have received from author Gerri Bowen, called Escape to Gettis… And Love, the first in the Love in Gettis series, in exchange for an honest review 😀 Thank you again for the kindness, Gerri! Oh, and I also would like to thank Booktips for introducing me to Gerri’s work ❤

from my Instagram 🙂

The Story

Maggie is a 21th century woman that thinks she can’t ask for more: she has a good daughter, a sweet granddaughter, a wonderful family, nice friends, a job that she loves doing and money enough to not raise worries. The perfect life.

Or so she felt until laying eyes on the strange Viking man that came through the time travelling portal on her backyard.

Joren is a true Viking man that came through the portal near his village into a strange place called Gettysburg, seeking for lost children. He couldn’t be more surprised to find all of them already grown up. Specially the child of his King… Maggie.

Now Joren must adjust himself to life in 21th century in order to win the heart of the woman that fascinated him. Mean while, Maggie needs to decide whether she can finally be happy with Joren after so many poor choices regarding men on her life.

All the while helping an entire Viking village to flee from the wrath of a psychotic man of their time. Good thing that they have magical guardians to help.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I wasn’t prepared to like this book so much! It was my first time-travelling romance and the level of identification that I felt with the characters was awesome! Honestly, my heart warmed every time I picked this up for reading. Some quotes just made my day, keeping me cracking up for several minutes in a roll. There were some minor editing problems and the book pace was weirdly slow/fast, so it was a four stars book 🙂

The narrative style was third person with alternating points of view between Maggie, Joren, and their “dogs”, Koozie and Dromo (they have dog forms, but are magical beings). I liked the switching points of view, this is my favorite style. Point for Bowen ❤ I had a small problem with the pace. I mean, you expect a book to have a small pace if it involved time-travelling people trying to adapt, but I felt that the story dragged in several points and was too fast in others, especially on the acceptance of new habits area. A star was half lost here.

The plot seemed simple, but developed in such a way that you could never predict what would happen and I would have never guessed who the 21th century villain was. AWESOME. As this book opens a series, it’s waste of time to talk about loose ends. What I can do is say how much I long to see what’s going to happen next! ❤ But seriously, I loved this plot. It got me since page one!

The characters were one of the strongest points in this book. For starters, I got myself a new bookish boyfriend, Joren. He is awesome ❤ A wonderful man in every way possible without losing his Viking touch, haha! And, more important: he was so real. I don’t know how Bowen did this, but all her characters could live in my building with me and be my neighbors. The social drama was palpable and real, I was amazed.

Other new thing is that I loved Maggie! I usually have problems with main female characters, but I loved Maggie. She was the perfect main character, even on her flaws, haha!

Other thing that got me a little on this book is the amount of main characters that are important for the story. It got me very confused in the beginning and I’m especially bad with names in general, so I was lost sometimes.

Bonus point: Bowen’s humor and dialogical constructions. Just read this piece of dialogue between Maggie and her brother Colin, extracted from the book:

“He [Joren] thought I was in your cell phone?”

“As near as I can figure, yeah. He was ready to skewer me unless I let you [Maggie] out.”

“That’s sweet. Funny, but sweet.”

I cracked so hard. Bowen knows her business, guys. Now, feel Joren’s intensity on this dialogue with Maggie:

“What would you [Joren] like to talk about?”

“You.”

His answer stopped her in her tracks.

“What about me?”

“All about you.”

Seriously, I can’t even with this man!! *swoons*

Ahem, I’m alive.

Overall, I always looked forward to picking up this book again whenever I had to stop reading and was biting my nails to know what was going to happen next until the last page. Like this:

If you like time-travelling, romance, beautiful Viking males and women that know exactly what they want, just drop my blog and go read this book ❤

That’s it! Thanks for reading and thanks once again to both Gerri Bowen and Booktips team! I loved this book ❤

After Death, from Jacqueline E. Smith (Cemetery Tours #3)

Hi, yet again! It’s with the purest heartache that I announce that this will be the last post in my Cemetery Tours marathon 😦 After Death is the third and last published book in the series by oh-so-talented Jacqueline E. Smith, so it closes the review frenzy of this week and I shall never recover of this awesome books. Thanks again, Jacqueline, for providing me with the whole series in exchange of an honest review for each book ❤

Anyway, just a quick recap: I already reviewed Cemetery Tours (book 1) and Between Worlds (book 2) of the Cemetery Tour series and After Death is here, as book 3 🙂

from my Instagram ❤

The Story

Michael and Kate are finally really dating after so many delays and are trapped with way simpler problems than before: are they ready for the next step? Is Kate over Trevor? Should Michael propose now or wait for a job to appear?

All those doubts are put on hold when Michael receives a weird invitation for the inauguration of Cirque Somniatis, in Hugo, Oklahoma. Kate jumps into the opportunity on the spot and convinces Michael that he should invite Luke Rainer as second escort for the event. Michael doesn’t really like the idea, as Luke seems to always causes him weeks of trouble and headache each time the three of them hooked up, put agrees nevertheless.

As always goes with people that handles with spirits, soon enough they realize that Cirque Somniatis is way darker than it should.

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

I’m sorry if I sound repetitive when I talk about any book of this series, but THEY ARE FREAKING AWESOME! After Death was even better than Between Worlds and made me crave for more like a possessed girl when I finished it and there wasn’t more. Five stars because Goodreads doesn’t allow me to give more.

me after finishing After Death

The good news is that Jacqueline assured me that Cemetery Tours is not ending any time soon! YAY, THANK YOU MY LORD!

me after talking to Jacqueline

Ok, I’m under control now. Maybe. But let’s (try to) get professional.

The narrative style is once again kept and it worked just fine for me for the whole series: third person with alternating point of views. The news is that we get to hear more of the story through Luke’s eyes, and it was awesome 😀 Now I officially love Luke, even with his very weird romantic notions.

The plot was breathtaking. Really, Smith evolved a lot through her books and I had no idea who were the real villains until the very end. Everybody – even Luke himself in some parts – seems to be hiding something awful. How many ghosts are there in the circus? Is the Ringmaster really a human being? Can Chance be more obnoxious? ARE THEY GOING TO FREAKING SURVIVE?!

Seriously, Jacqueline broke me with this book. I read it in one day, crazily and non-stop as much as I could.

Once again, the aspect that more appraised me were the characters. Besides our bffs Michael, Kate, Luke and Brink, we are introduced to new people and spirits. They all grew up a lot, specially Michael (again), the Luke himself points out on his parts of the book. Their friendship gets stronger and it’s just beautiful. I like Claire too, a new ghost in town, but she is kind of scaring and crazy, in the worse way possible: the innocent looking way, haha! Blink also has a big part in this book and it was heartwarming to see what Michael did for him in the end. I cried hard, tears of joy ❤ But, putting all the magic aside for a moment, I have to share a theory with you guys or I may die.

There’s this guy that shows up as well, called Chance. He also owns a TV show based in ghost hunting and all, called Ghost Crusaders or some other non-sense like that. The thing is that Chance is a very jerk individual, but he is especially mean with Luke and we can clearly see that it goes beyond TV rating rivalry. In the end, his reasons are revealed, but I kinda didn’t believe him. I mean, NO ONE is so cruel for such a stupid reason without being a psychopath (which Chance wasn’t, he had too many passion in his hate for Luke). Which brings me to my theory: is Chance hiding some sort of insane and sick passion for Luke? It would make all the sense in the world for me and I was so sure that I was right that I even gasped when I read what it was all about. Seriously. Love and hate are apart thanks to a very thin and transparent line. I don’t know if Chance’s dedication to Luke’s fall is fed by only hate. I don’t think he has this notion, but I believe with all my heart THAT I AM STILL RIGHT AND THAT CHANCE IS JUST MAKING EXCUSES FOR HIMSELF.

don’t worry, Chance. I’ll keep your secret from Luke 😉

Ahem, back to the book.

Bonus point: the circus aspect was a huge one. Smith manages to immerse her reader on that feeling of darkness, magic, joy, mystery and decadency all the same time. I’m fascinated about circus in horror/ghost/suspense books and for its history in general, so I felt butterflies in my stomach all the time while “I was” on the circus with Michael, Kate and Luke.

Overall, this was one of the best full series that I read this year. I’m just not going to say that it was the absolute best because I’ve read all Percy Jackson’s books earlier this year for the first time and I also liked them very much, haha! But seriously, it’s the best ghost series ever. CEMETERY TOURS BEATED THE MEDIATOR SERIES IN MY HEART =O

That’s it! Thanks for reading and for bearing with me and my Cemetery Tours marathon ❤ And, of course, thanks once again to Jacqueline, this awesome author that manage to find her own place in my heart 😀

 

 

Ps: That was my third book on the #12daysofbooksmas2 readathon!

Convincing the Secretary, from Ava March (London Legal #3)

Good night! I know, the blog is on fire, haha! And it is about to burn all the way up because the reviewed book of the evening is HOT HOT HOT!

Ahem, do you remember when I did this mega post talking about the release of Convincing the Secretary, third book in the London Legal series, from Ava March? So, Ava sent me a copy two days ago as an early Christmas gift and allowed me to open and read it on the spot! 😀 ❤ Thanks so so so much, again!

from my Instagram!

 

I finished the book on the same day, but Ava plays so hard with my emotions that I needed to breathe before posting this review, haha!

Ok, I’m in control again. Without any more giber jabber, let’s do this and THANKS AGAIN, I LOVE YOU, AVA! ❤

The Story

Edward Fenton has always fantasized about a lasting relationship with someone that he truly loved and that felt the same way towards him. At first, his boss Arthur Barrington sounded like the perfect choice for his dream to come true. Except that the man is already way taken by his lover, Leopold Thornton. One can’t win them all.

With the arrival of a new solicitor in Barrington’s office, Edward is relocated as his secretary. Lord Grayson is the perfect definition of tall, black and handsome and sends Edward’s imagination to depths that he never knew himself capable of. But can a relationship with such a powerful man work out the way Edward dreams of?

Gray, in the other hand, knows he found the perfect match in the moment he understands Edward’s interests on him, but how to convince the young man that he is Mr. Perfect?

The Analysis

Just remembering that those were my impressions and opinion as a reader 🙂

Ava always catches my heart unguarded. I was completely okay with life, minding my own business, when I opened my e-mail and saw her gift. As the book isn’t going to be published until March of 2016, I was trying to lead a mental healthy life without being too much of a goner and counting the minutes for the pre-ordering to start on Amazon. But the heart attack was so worthy! This book was awesome! It is a short book (my copy had 100 pages), but the romance is so intense that you are breathless for the whole time! (Or maybe I was, because it was a gift from my favorite author and a book that I already knew about for quite a while.)

I’ll try to be professional now, but I won’t promise that I’ll be impartial, because that’s impossible when working with perfect books. #justsaying

I really love March’s narrative style. Third person, alternating points of views between the couple present in the book ❤ Both Edward and Gray had their own minds and you could see who was doing the thinking very clearly. Once again, March showed how important is communication in a relationship, as words unspoken do the damage in both men’s feelings.

The plot was simple, but not obvious, not for me. I mean, okay, boy meets boy in the 19^th century, boy is not sure if other boy likes boys as well, both give the relationship a try and things go wrong. To explain why I wasn’t very sure of the outcome of this particular work of March, I’ll have to talk about the characters, so hold that thought. Back to the plot, we get to see Arthur and Leopold again, which was awesomely cool (I always like to see my boys again; those two are the heroes of the first books in the series, Convincing Arthur and Convincing Leopold, respectively). There were no loose ends; it would have been nice to know a little more about Edward’s and Gray’s past, but no information was lacking inside of the proposition of the book.

The characters are the best part. You see, in a regular March novel, you’d have two individuals that really need to find true love, that feel incomplete and don’t know what they need until they meet their soul mates, for say. On this book, it was different. Both Edward and Gray are pinning for a happily ever after, but not necessarily with each other. Gray realizes faster that he needs Edward, that Edward is the one, but Edward was more down on the earth. He felt the need of having Gray around, but could (cof and did cof) survive a break up with him without dying the emotional death of break-ups, you know? Honestly, Edward impressed me. He made a cameo appearance previously in the series and I never paid much attention to him, he was so… Bleak? Haha! But being inside of his head, it all made sense and oh boy, he grows up SO MUCH! He is officially one of my favorite males from March now ❤

I always like her males, for God’s sake…

And, dealing with a book written by March, I can’t treat sex scenes as a bonus point, because they are always there and she never EVER disappoint her readers. Did I mention that NEVER happens? Okay, haha! Since the beggining, the bed roles between Edward and Gray are pretty clear and I was waiting for them to have a kind of Oliver and Vincent relationship behind closed doors. Once again, I was wrong! =O I mean, none of them gets to really submit and I thought that AWESOME. Neither was the “fragile” part, always so equal even inside of the bedchamber. AVA, YOU ROCKED HARD!

Bonus point: oh, this cover. Do I need to say more?

also from my Instagram! 😀

Overall, I knew I would love this book since Ava told me she was beginning to write it and I did, a lot. Ava, Thanks again for sending me this, it was the best Christmas present EVER! 😀

That’s it! Thanks for reading and humoring me as I once again talked about Ava March’s work 😉 I bet you all can’t wait until next year, when I’ll do a big re-reading and reviewing of ALL OF HER BOOKS, MWAHAHA MWAHAHA.

 

 

Ps: don’t worry, there will be Harry Potter and The Vampire Diaries reviews too, haha!